“What do you know? No alarms,” Shirley said.
“Maybe it beeps somewhere but as long as they look for real no one cares? Just so it’s not one of us crazies.”
“Quick,” Shirley shuffled them back down the hall before Janice’s aid could grab her and put her to bed. “Do you suppose they watch the hall cameras at the nurses station?”
“Naw, I sat and watched them one day this week to see. They don’t have the cameras. They must think we’re sealed in here.”
As they got to the Unit 2 door. Shirley said, “I bet your right.” Shirley ripped the wig off her head and fluffed her crushed hair and whipped the house dress over her head.
“What are you doing? If you go through nude, they’ll think you’re one of the dementia crowd for sure.”
Shirley rummaged on the shelves of the linen closet. “Aha. Look.” She waved some scrubs at Janice. “Here’s the plan. I don’t know if I’ll need a code in the morning to get back in and I’ll need to know the coast is clear.”
“I gotcha. I’ll come back after they give me breakfast.”
“Save me something. This sharing meals is making me hungry.”
“Sure, I’ll put the scrambled eggs up my sleeve. You better go if you’re going. I hope you turn up tomorrow.” Janice turned her wheelchair back down the hall.
“Me too.”
Shirley waited a beat for Janice to get further down then walked straight through the Unit 2 door.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Blanche got pizza for the kiddos and they ran for the video games in the living room. She thought longingly of her quiet apartment, but knew it would be a few days before she would make it to Seaside Flats. She flew back to the rich humidity of Florida tomorrow but needed to get out to RCCC ASAP. The Dragon was prowling, Janice held against her will in dementia and Shirley in hiding. Blanche best not dally.
She remembered a bag her daughter had in the laundry room with clothes to send to Goodwill. Blanche thought more about the disguise idea. She wasn’t sure what that could be exactly, but dug around and found a two piece business suit that her daughter was ditching and a baseball jersey that must have been her son-in-law’s. It would be plenty large enough to wrap around middle age spread that had stayed for old age. She tried to remember what people wore out there. It was all dress for dinner at RCCC. She really didn’t have time for that, she didn’t think the baseball jersey would be subtle either.
Her phone rang. It was Al.
“It worked.”
“What did?”
“Lois, managed to get to the papers you sent. Chuck took a look at the bills and the papers and he said you’re on to something. Definitely some swindling going on there. Whether it’s enough to do a prosecution or call full blown fraud needs to be investigated. This could prove something’s not right though, you know?”
“We’ve got ‘em, Al. Good job.”
“I knew it all along.”
“Sure you did.”
“Say, can you still drive a boat do you think?”
“I don’t see why not. I could probably do a car if they’d get me one of those that has hand controls. I’m not blind or nuts.”
“Jury is out.”
“Watch it, old woman.”
“Can you be ready for a little outing when I get in tomorrow?”
“On a boat?”
She could hear his voice light up.
“Love to!” Al said.
“You driving a boat will be one good thing to come out of this mess, I guess.”
She got the kids to head to their rooms and looked at her watch. It was late on the coast but she called John Mateo. It was the first chance she had without little listening ears.
He said, “Where’d you get the documents? Are those on Rafael? They aren’t real clear.”
“No comment on where, but John, look. I should be able to get something more on Señor Rafael, I hope, and possibly El Tigre tomorrow, but I need some kind of offer from the tabloid for Veda Vespucci.”
“What?”
“Yeah, the very one. See what they’ll give and what kind of story they want out of her for the money, will you?”
“I imagine they’ll go for that. She’s been out of sight for a while. But I get something on El Tigre?”
“I’ve got to get back out to the island tomorrow, but I think I can get something for you when I get there.”
Blanche hoped she wasn’t full of hot air and Antonio would cooperate when it all boiled down to it. She wasn’t sure if they’d have to tweak his role in things or he would have to be doing penance by turning in Señor Rafael, but something had to give.
Blanche finished putting the last of her things in her suitcase minus her morning ablutions and was about to go downstairs to wait for her daughter and son-in-law to arrive in an airport shuttle when her phone chimed.
“AnaRosa? Is everything okay?” Blanche thought it sounded like the woman had been crying.
“They make me go see Señor.”
“What? No! He didn’t, you couldn’t. Oh, no! Are you okay?”
“Mister Bruce told them I would only read, but they tried to...convince me to do other things and said horrible things to me. I will have to go to confession just for mi mente to be clean from such words that came into my ears.” AnaRosa said something more in Spanish.
“Are they making you go back?”
“I can’t, but I can’t quit my job. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to tell where Shirley is, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“Do they know you helped her?”
“No, but I can’t go back to Unit 2. I will have to tell if they try to make me. Lo siento pero no puedo.”
“No, no, don’t tell. You don’t have to do that. We’ll figure out something. Call in sick.”
“I have tomorrow off.”
“Okay, I will go to the island tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it is.”
“I will do anything else I can to help you, Miss Blanche. I promise it but if they try to make me go to Unit 2, I will have to tell where Shirley is. He will attack me that man. He’s evil. We must do something.”
“Yes. Could you just do cleaning in Unit 2 when they aren’t paying attention? We need some proof of Señor being there to give to a newspaper.”
“Madre Mia. I don’t want him to see me and hurt me. I’m not going tomorrow.”
Blanche imagined she was crossing herself. Evil certainly needed to be thwarted in the island paradise. Or the nursing home from hell depending on how you looked at it.
Blanche thought about her disguise idea. What about scrubs and a wig? Her poor bouffant hair-do was already wilted. A wig would be the death knell. She’d have to keep it on until she got to her beauty shop and Sammy her hairdresser would have to start from scratch.
“AnaRosa, how does your entry card work?”
She explained about scanning as she entered RCCC at the employee entrance to get paid and then to enter secure areas or zones.
“Let me borrow your card tomorrow? I’ll get it to you when you need to work. Or if they somehow know or they catch me with it, you say you lost it when you were with Señor and that will scare them.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll try to get proof of Señor’s presence. I’ll try to find Shirley and Janice.” She thought about Antonio and Frank. She’d try to get Antonio to make a deal with John. Hopefully find a deal for Veda-Shirley to get out too. But how to get Janice free?
“I’ll come by tomorrow and get your card before I go. Okay? Can I borrow some of your work clothes too?” Scrubs were scrubs Blanche thought size seemed irrelevant even though AnaRosa was bigger through the middle than Blanche by a bit.
“Okay, I will get it all ready. And I will say a prayer.”
“We need it! All the help we can get. Especially divine help against evil.”
Blanche knew she wouldn’t sleep. She heard Michelle and Bryan in the driveway and knew she had to get her happ
y-family game face ready.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Blanche tried her most delighted face when she stepped out on the porch to greet her daughter and son-in-law. She legitimately felt relieved they were back. She hoped the porch lights and darkness would obscure any lingering anguish in her face thinking about the mess out on Royale Cove.
Her son-in-law Bryan dug in the trunk as Michelle advanced to Blanche. Her daughter reminded her of Harry. Not that she looked manly or portly like him, but she inherited his mannerisms and matter-of-fact way of giving orders to everyone. Blanche hadn’t missed that all these years of widowhood and a pang of guilt passed over her. She gave Michelle an extra tight squeeze because of it.
“Everything okay?” Michelle said. Her superpower of seeing through people activated. Blanche supposed with three boys to keep up with at crucial ages it was important.
“Everyone is fine.” Blanche smiled.
Bryan had two overnight bags as he approached. “Hey Grams, good to see you survived.” He grinned and winked. He at least had a practical view of a weekend alone with his children. Michelle elbowed him.
“You seem tired.” Michelle didn’t let Blanche go.
“It has been a lot to keep up with all of them.” Blanche didn’t want to put it all on the kids. She cast around for other safe things to say. “Still worried about Tommy and the condo lawsuit seems to be going forward.”
Bryan opened the door and stepped back for the two women to enter around the bags and his belly.
“What’s Tommy up to now?” he asked with a grin.
Blanche felt another pang of guilt. She’d not meant to air all his dirty laundry to Michelle.
Michelle stepped them into the entry hall and said, “Same old. I’m sure he’s in trouble with gambling overlords. He’s been at it too long to sidestep problems forever.”
“Did you know?” Blanche asked. “He didn’t admit that but it sounds like he’s got debt with someone like that, but in the meantime the county prosecutor has subpoenaed him. Somehow they see him likely as a victim who can be pressed to talk.”
“Oh, wow. Just wow,” Michelle said heading for the kitchen.
Bryan who seemed more sympathetic said, “Jeez, I hope he doesn’t get himself hurt.”
“I know.” A wave of fear gripped Blanche. Maybe she should have given him a check for debt coverage before she left. It hadn’t been a negotiation. And what of her new vow to get him help and stop just handing him money? The word enabling came to mind but she thought that was families much more messed up than what she experienced with Tommy, wasn’t it?
“Maybe,” Bryan lowered his voice and looked toward the kitchen. “I have a friend out in Atlantic City. He went to law school after we did college, he might have some connections that could help.” Then he whispered, “I’ve offered but Michelle says Tommy needs to clean up his own mess.”
“No doubt that’s true, but he is in deep at the moment. The thing is he doesn’t have money for a lawyer and I don’t know that I could sustain it on my fixed income either.” Blanche bit her lip. For sure, she wasn’t sleeping tonight.
“We were in a fraternity together. Maybe he’ll do an old brother a favor or cut us a deal, or get famous on this and thank us.” Bryan winked and laughed.
Blanche sighed. “Guess it doesn’t hurt to call. That boy needs to get cleaned up for sure.”
They had a nightcap together and organized a shuttle for Blanche’s crazy early flight. She said her goodbyes and excused herself.
She made a list in shorthand so no prying eyes could understand.
— Limo go by AnaRosa’s 1. Key and 2. Scrubs
— Go to condo to pick up Al. She added to herself: pray he can drive this kind of boat and not get us killed.
— Tell Tommy about the lawyer from Bryan.
— File a new Medicare fraud alert, plus find media attention
— Get Diane to remove Edna from RCCC because of above
— Convince Antonio to talk to John at the Sun Sentinel
— Secure proof Mr. Smith332 of the documents was Señor Rafael for the newspaper and the world
— Smuggle Janice out. How?
This would be more than a day’s work, Blanche thought. It might be a miracle, but no more Mrs. Nice Guy. No old lady chit chat or Miss Marple knitting. That was over. This was up, as Seth would say. Or was it this was on?
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Everything went as Blanche expected from flying to limo to pick ups until they reached the dock. Blanche hadn’t slept at all at her daughter’s before the 4 a.m. shuttle arrived. Fatigue pulled at her arms and legs.
The limo Diane promised met her at the West Palm airport. She’d coerced the cute young man driving to make multiple stops and not go straight to the dock as Diane had ordered.
But now Al stood with his mouth hanging open balanced on his two canes with his green fishing hat and Bermuda shorts.
“What?” Blanche asked.
“You didn’t say ship. You said boat.”
“Semantics.”
He finally turned and stomped one of his canes at her. “No, sir. This is a lot more vessel than I’ve ever thought of boarding even as a passenger. It’s a danged yacht, woman. A small one, but it’s not a weekend fishing boat. You know?”
“So can you drive it?” She saw his ego wrestling with his anxiety.
“I think this requires a different word than drive.” He turned back to stare.
“Call it what you want - we need to get going.” Blanche looked at her watch and said a prayer Al could do this.
“Our first problem is getting up there. You’ll have to see if there’s a ladder on the back. If you can, you will have to go up the back and find a drop down around that area,” he pointed with a cane, “Lower the gangway so I can get up.”
Blanche felt the first stirring of true disconcertment. “Can’t we both shimmy up the back and skip the gangway?”
“No can do. Should be a platform or something around there.” He nodded toward the back.
Blanche saw it cost him to admit he couldn’t do it and didn’t protest anymore. She’d have to go for it. When she got back there and looked around she could understand. A tiny fiberglass platform just above water level stuck out behind the boat. She had to step down so deeply to board it, she felt like she was throwing herself into the water by the time she’d loosed her grip on the dock and took a controlled fall onto the platform. Bombs away.
Then she had to put her hands and feet into tiny cubbies formed into the fiberglass or whatever this thing was. It made a makeshift ladder. She could barely do it and no arthritis or war injuries impeded her.
When she scrambled on deck breathing hard, her phone rang. It was the Dragon. Of course it was.
Trying not to puff she said, “Diane, I just got in.”
“I know good and well you’ve been wandering around town in the limo for an hour.”
“A lady needs her equipment.” Blanche said vaguely looking around for the gangway to get the ship’s captain on board. She just hoped Al could actually drive the thing.
“Here’s the deal. I found some money for Veda. We will get her off the island and a one time check for $50,000 But I want her confession of murder of her father or her details of how her mother killed him. And I want photos of her as a child and current ones.”
Blanche’s mind’s eye flashed to those dark glasses and she knew that was not going to be an easy sell for Shirley-Veda. She also didn’t know if the movie star knew how to live on $50,000 for more than a month or two and what would she do when she ran out?
A spasm of thankfulness for Harry’s scrimping and saving to have a paid for condo hit her. God rest his cheapskate soul. She didn’t have to worry about a roof. Just taxes.
“I don’t know if she killed him or not nor if she’ll go for that deal. It seems weak.” Blanche added quickly, “But I can ask her about it when I get out there.”
“No. I don’t think you u
nderstand me. I’ve invested in you and you will make her understand that it’s to her advantage to tell her story or we’ll burn her. This is her last offer.”
Blanche saw a crankshaft handle. That looked promising for lowering something hopefully the gangplank to Al but she needed both hands.
What did “burn her” even mean? She knew it was just Diane cruelty. Was this Dragon speak for outing Veda in the media? Or for selling Blanche’s presence to RCCC?
“Uh, huh, sure. Remember she’s got someone else offering her money for talking. Okay, gotta go,” Blanche said vaguely and heard the Dragon swear and threaten her as she hung up.
Yeah, this had gone way beyond money. Initially, Blanche thought she could use some help on her car repairs and hurricane damage, but this had turned into blood, fraud and justice, for God’s sake. That was just it, she thought, as she found the right combo to lower the ramp to Al. She had to do this for God’s sake to bring a bit of divine justice to this odd jungle corner of the Florida elder world. The big man upstairs gave her this opportunity to set something right and bring some justice to the world. Diane the Dragon hadn’t reckoned on Blanche’s sense of right when she’d started bullying her.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Al’s driving of the large vessel, as he kept calling it, took several years off, Blanche’s life as they left the marina. He kept idling or reversing something as they drew perilously near to other even more expensive yachts in the Boca Raton marina.
Blanche got a week’s worth of exercise running from corner to corner to help Al pilot or to see how close they were or shove rubber bumpers into place so they wouldn’t actually make contact with some multimillion dollar “ship.”
Sweat covered her in the humid warm air. She hoped they made it to Royal Cove. Adrenaline sure canceled out fatigue.
When they were clear of the immediate obstacles, she went below and changed to the scrubs that AnaRosa had given her. She hung the keycard on the lanyard around her neck. She evaluated herself in the mirror. Sadly, the wig was going to be a necessity.
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